This is like a Godsend because it's finally going to be proven that these people prejudge you. It's like going into a fixed jury.

NCAA President Mark Emmert faces another challenge in his brief tenure after the NCAA acknowledged improperly getting depositions from a bankruptcy court proceeding for the Miami investigation. (The Associated Press)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Former NCAA infractions committee chairman Gene Marsh has witnessed his share of enforcement controversies. Nothing may top the NCAA admitting improper conduct in its Miami investigation, a development that Marsh said reached "a near low point" for the enforcement process.

"It will do more for people to want to change the process than anything I've seen in all my years," said Marsh, who cautioned some time needs to pass before understanding the full impact of the NCAA misstep. "By their own admission, the NCAA considers this to be a big deal and they don't often publicly say that about their process."

For years, many people have distrusted how the NCAA polices universities, arguing it's unfair and fundamentally broken. The latest black eye came Wednesday when the NCAA revealed its 2-year-old case against Miami over extra benefits from a booster is in jeopardy due to a breach of conduct.

The NCAA said former investigators worked with the attorney of ex-Miami booster Nevin Shapiro, a convicted Ponzi scheme mastermind, to get depositions for the NCAA case through an unrelated bankruptcy proceeding. The attorney was even on the NCAA's payroll.

"How in the world can you get this far without it being recognized that this was an inappropriate way to proceed?" NCAA President Mark Emmert asked Wednesday on a media conference call.

This comes on the heels of an NCAA investigator reportedly being fired last fall after her boyfriend told a fellow airplane passenger about her pursuit of UCLA basketball player Shabazz Muhammad, who was promptly reinstated. Also, a Los Angeles judge recently criticized the NCAA for its "malicious" treatment of former USC assistant coach Todd McNair, who was implicated in the Reggie Bush case.

"I've prayed for this day," said Sonny Vaccaro, a former sports marketing executive and frequent NCAA target through the years. "This is like a Godsend because it's finally going to be proven that these people prejudge you. It's like going into a fixed jury."

Can enforcement be fixed?

Suggestions on how to better enforce NCAA rules run the spectrum, ranging from more experienced investigators to outsourcing the job to eliminating altogether some amateurism rules the NCAA has championed for years.

Jo Potuto, former chairwoman of the NCAA infractions committee and a constitutional law professor at Nebraska, said she supports college athletes being allowed to sell their name and likeness.

Former NCAA infractions committee chairwoman Jo Potuto

"That's fundamentally different than paying athletes to play the sport," Potuto said, while acknowledging problems could exist with boosters paying recruits to attend their college. "Maybe you put the money in a trust for when they graduate."

As more money flows into college sports, policing violators of NCAA rules will only become harder, said former Congressman Tom McMillen, who played basketball at Maryland and now serves on the university's board. McMillen has argued for years that the NCAA's incentive structure should be based on its nonprofit educational mission, such as academic performance, gender equity and maintaining costs.

"The incentives in place are to win at any cost because the financial gain is so great," McMillen said. "I don't care what you try with enforcement, it won't work. You're trying to keep a lid on a volcano. You can't have incentive systems that are going in the opposite directions. Either you go one way or the other. We're in the middle, and that's not a sustainable model."

The NCAA has long faced challenges to police its rules, in large part because the association lacks subpoena power. People outside the NCAA have no requirement to cooperate. That can lead the NCAA to push the envelope with tactics, such as feeding questions in a bankruptcy hearing to get NCAA-related answers under oath.

Acquiring answers from an attorney willing to share from a legal proceeding can be helpful, but it raises ethical issues since the subject wasn't obliged to speak to the NCAA, Potuto said.

"I'm torn because the enforcement staff doesn't have many ways to get the information," Potuto said. "If it's material they shouldn't have gotten, they may not be able to make any kind of case against the individuals. That is troubling to me if you're looking for the truth and an aggressive process to rules violations."

Asking federal or state governments to police NCAA cases would go against how America tries civil actions, Potuto said. "I think what the NCAA is doing is pretty important, but it's not the health plan, it's not bankruptcy," she said. "What's the interest in tax money being used as a civil arm for a private organization?"

Some NCAA investigators in over their heads

Former NCAA infractions chairman Gene Marsh

Marsh, who now defends schools and coaches against NCAA charges, said he finds enforcement staff members to be well intentioned. "They have a horrible job to do," he said. "Who would want to enforce that rulebook for a living?"

But Marsh believes some NCAA investigators are ill-equipped to understand legal and ethical issues that arise, particularly as more NCAA cases involve high-powered defense lawyers.

"Some of the enforcement people are clearly not in that category, no way," Marsh said. "Others aren't in that category or would have enough common sense to know they should punt and pass an issue along to their general counsel's office. Just because you have a law degree doesn't mean you have the guns to jump into the fire."

The NCAA said today that its general counsel's office specifically told the enforcement staff at least twice that it could not use Shapiro's attorney to obtain depositions. The NCAA has launched an investigation of itself led by Kenneth Wainstein, a New York attorney and a former Homeland Security adviser to President George W. Bush.

Marsh remembers the NCAA conducting similar internal reviews at least twice in the past 12 years without publicly sharing the findings. He said that's necessary today in light of how "showy" the NCAA has been lately in cases against universities and coaches.

"If Louis Freeh's no-holds barred report (on Penn State) can be made public and significant actions are taken from it, then let somebody else's no-holds barred report be made public for folks to digest and decide," Marsh said.

Vaccaro, the so-called godfather of grassroots basketball, doesn't need a report to draw his conclusions.

"I've witnessed this for 35 years. It hasn't changed," he said. "Some people have investigated me and apologized to me 10 years later. They have a personal list like (J. Edgar) Hoover had. This Miami case gave some of my thoughts more credibility than anything else that has happened. The dike is open. There aren't enough thumbs."